The United States is home to a lucrative food service industry, which encompasses all businesses that deal with meals prepared outside the home. This includes services such as full service restaurants (FSRs), quick service restaurants (QSRs) catering companies, coffee shops and cafes, private chefs, and more. Combined, the food service industry is responsible for a wide variety of jobs in the United States. Broken down by type, the largest
came from waiters and waitresses in 2022, with private cooks making up the smallest share. The latter, however, were some of the
that same year. When looking at the earnings of the industry as a whole,
reached an all-time high of 975.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2022.
What is the biggest sector in the U.S. food service industry?
It may come as no surprise that the restaurant sector is the biggest sector in the U.S. food service industry. The country was forecast to have nearly 200 thousand
QSR establishments in 2023. That year, the
number of FSR establishments in the U.S. was expected to exceed 33 thousand. FSRs are primarily focused on providing food services to patrons who order and are served while seated and pay after eating, while at QSRs patrons generally order at a cash register, drive-thru, or food bar and pay before they eat. Of the
leading QSR chains in the U.S. by sales, McDonald’s generated by far the most sales in 2022 at over 48 billion U.S. dollars. Many QSRs operate delivery services or drive-thrus. These became vital to the U.S. food service industry during the
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic when seated indoor dining was severely restricted.
The rise of online food delivery in the U.S. food service industry
The United States is home to the second
largest online food delivery market in the world behind China. Online food delivery is a service that allows customers to order food through a website or app and have it delivered to their home. In 2023, the overall
size of the online food delivery market in the U.S. was estimated at approximately 270 billion U.S. dollars, with the grocery and meal delivery segments generating around 182.9 and 86.9 billion U.S. dollars in revenue, respectively. Meanwhile, the
number of users of the online food delivery market in the U.S. reached 288.5 million during that same year. Since 2018, the number of users of the online food delivery market has increased year-over-year alongside the overall market size of the online food delivery industry in the U.S., and this trend is expected to continue.
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